More About Jewel Ward | Fun & Dissertation Research

What I Do for Fun

So…you want to learn more about Jewel Ward? (Why?!?) 😂

I love my work. Having said that, it is nice to do something that is not work-related.

When not pondering the inner workings of policy-based data management, I like to hike, swim, walk my dogs, and visit with friends and family. I love to go to the beach or the mountains, watch a movie, read a book for “fun”, drink coffee, cook laugh, and be silly.

I took up surfing in 2013. The picture of me on a surfboard in this “fun” section is from a surf trip at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp in March 2014. I have not had much time to pursue it the past couple of years.

I see that lack of opportunity changing later this year (2017). If there is one thing you must know “about Jewel Ward”, then with surfing, it was ❤️❤️❤️ at first wipe out!

This was my third trip to Witch’s Rock. (I highly recommend them.) When I get to the Intermediate level, I’ll post a new photo.

Dissertation Research

As of this writing, I am a doctoral candidate in Information and Library Science. I focus on large- and small-scale data management and digital stewardship.

My research focuses on the curation and preservation of digital data. My dissertation is a content analysis of machine representations of preservation policies.

In other words, I am trying to understand how existing standards such as the OAIS Reference Model and ISO 16363 are applied at the machine level currently.

I want to build preservation standards into the machine code of the preservation repositories themselves in the future. Why does this matter?

Because it is less expensive to build and maintain anything from cars to houses to surfboards to digital repositories if standards are used.

By eventually building digital preservation standards into the machine code of a repository instead of the current manual method of applying these policies, my hope is that the costs of preserving digital material will be reduced.

This makes it more likely the material will be preserved for the indefinite long-term. This matters for things like medical records, movies, and baby pictures, among the many digital items in the world that people want to keep and preserve indefinitely.